Attendees:
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Kai Brodersen
Chris Leach
Sandy Leach
Ken Koleda
Larry Pieniazek
Nik Pieniazek
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Steve (2) Ringe
Scott Sanburn
Jason Spears
Steve (3) Weiser
Lester Witter
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Guests:
Justin Pankey
Tom Sak
Overall Picture Galleries:
Scott Sanburn |
Ken Koleda |
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Briefing:
We met at Spencer’s house in Ypsilanti. This is the second time he hosted a meeting, although this time we were upstairs as the basement had gotten a little wet. Chris is working on a new design for some streetlights and was looking for some feedback. He had brought some road plates with grey sidewalks to show the design in action. Lester brought a small DCC (DigiTrax) setup, it was suggested that we may want to give this a more through test at an upcoming small show. Lester demonstrated how we can use an auxiliary controller and how momentum effects might add interesting operational difficulties. With Lego trains, when you cut the power, they stop immediately, which isn't very typically of full sized trains. With DCC you can program in longer stops, which makes for interesting operation. Larry brought his “Inn of the Fallen Angels”, which he had built in time to take to Brickfest PDX. He gave several tours through the day as more people showed up. Nik brought a plethora of Sea Monkey creations, as well as some mecha: "Cade" the Evil Chicken and his henchman, and their arch-nemesis, the mecha "Annexed Heeler". The Evil Chickens won in the small mecha category at PDX.. Jason encouraged Nik to get them LDrawn so instructions could be put on the website. Ken brought some of his jeeps and some of his son Trevor's stuff. Trevor's tri-domed lunar half track drew comments in particular. Steve (2) brought a lego purist DCC (ie RC controlled train regulator.) Also an updated steam engine with BBB Wheels.
We had two guests, Tom Sak and Justin Pankey. Justin brought a theater with very nice details. Tom brought some semi trucks, one with sixty plus wheels!
There wasn’t much club business to discuss and we were short on EC members, so this meeting was pretty much just hanging out and talking. Steve (2) had mentioned he was going to be a little late, but still wanted to be a part of the 4400 draft. We politely waited for him. However we made a mistake in waiting until two to start sorting. With 7000 pieces and with such a variation in types, it took quite a while to sort the whole mess out. We ended up grabbing some club tables from the basement to extend Spencer’s kitchen table to almost fifteen feet. Once we got into the drafting itself, it still took four hours or so to get finished. In the beginning, we went with a limit of ten pieces, no more than one of a kind. We double it twice as the remaining pieces/varity dwindled, until finally we were taking forty pieces, no more than ten of a kind. Near the end, it was pretty much just 1x1s.
We did have one mishap, Steve (2) being the nice guy that he is bent down to pick up a piece that Scott had dropped from his draft loot. Unfortunately as he did so, he bumped the table where Larry, Jason, and Nik’s had placed their creations. This was a nifty coffee table thing that oddly enough folded up quite nicely, however as all the Lego crashed to the floor, it wasn’t so nice. Steve was apologetic, but the damage had been done. One of Jason’s houses fared pretty well as did most of Nik’s creations, but Jason’s other house was in five good sized chunks and Larry’s Inn was next to obliterated. He spent the next hour or so putting it back together and fixing interior details. No hard feelings though, it will make for some cheerful ribbing and we learned a lesson. No matter how cool the table, a sturdy surface is required when displaying Lego creations.
All in all, a good meeting, and we are looking forward to the next.
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Meeting Pictures:
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